Imagine losing your spouse, only to be told that you will have no say in the final disposal of the remains because of an alleged religious conversion.

Imagine legal action being taken by a religious court to force teh burial of you spous's body according to the rites of that other religion -- and not being permitted to testify because you are not of that faith.

Imagine the civil courts declaring themselves powerless to intervene and provide you with the opportunity to present evidence that there was no conversion.

The widow of Malaysian mountaineer M. Moorthy lived exactly that horrific scenario this week.

A Malaysian mountaineering hero will be buried as a Muslim, against the wishes of his Hindu wife, who denied he had converted to Islam before his death.

The decision follows a High Court ruling that it cannot override the country's Islamic courts in matters of religious conversion.

An Islamic court had said the man, M Moorthy, had become a Muslim last year.

Lawyers say the case highlights problems faced by non-Muslims dealing with Malaysia's Islamic justice system.

"So much for good interracial relations," Haris Mohamad Ibrahim, a lawyer representing Malaysia's Bar Council, told The Associated Press.

"The judge has just told the widow and her family to go back and leave the body of their beloved to be buried by strangers."

Moorthy's brother and some of his former army colleagues claimed that he had convertedlast year. But only two months ago, he gave an interview about his preparations for the Hindu religious festival of Diwali. The family was forbidden from providing testimony or evidence before the Sharia court, rendering the proceeding nothing more than a barbaric farce (not that Sharia courts are capable of being other than a barbaric farce). And the civil courts provided no due process or source of redress for the Hindu family.

In dismissing the application by MoorthyÂ’s widow, S. Kaliammal, Raus noted that the main issue brought before him was whether Moorthy had converted to Islam or was still a Hindu.

"The civil court has no jurisdiction to review the Syariah High Court decision," he told a packed courtroom.

Raus also said although there were affidavits filed by Kaliammal, her brother and a friend stating that Moorthy participated in Hindu rituals, the question of jurisdiction to decide the matter still lay with the Syariah court and not the civil court.

For this reason, he said, he could only grant one relief sought by the widow — that she was the deceased’s lawful wife until the time of his death on Dec 20.

Kaliammal, in her originating summons filed on Wednesday, sought a declaration that Moorthy was a Hindu and followed Hindu rituals, a declaration Moorthy was not a Muslim, and a declaration that documents proving MoorthyÂ’s conversion were null and void.

After the judge handed down his decision, M. Manoharan, lawyer for the widow, applied unsuccessfully for a stay of execution for them to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

In other words, the Sharia court had full and unreviewable authority to steal the body over the objections of the family based upon claims of a conversion that not even his Muslim brother claims to have been aware of until after Moorthy's death.

The body was then seized and buried according to Muslim rights, with the Hindu family not attending the funeral which was an affront to their faith and basic decency.

MORE AT: Maobi, Reduced and Recycled, Rajan Rishyakaran, KTemoc Konsiders, Retake Constantinople, Politics 101 Malaysia, Mental Block, Daniel Pipes, The Enemy Is You.

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Muslims demand the right to preach their faith and convert Christians to it. On the other hand, they consider efforts by Christians to convert Muslims -- and the conversion of Muslims to other faiths -- a crime worthy of death. That's why one of the most important books of the last decade has been banned in Muslim countries -- and in some countries with substantial Muslim minorities.

Can you name the book which has the Islamic world in an uproar, and caused the United States government to deny any involvement with it? The book banned in the worldÂ’s most populous democracy? No, not Salman RushdieÂ’s The Satanic Verses, a cause celebre among the literati. The book in question is published by evangelical Christian Arabs, and the American media couldnÂ’t care less about it.

Islam considers apostasy a crime punishable by death. It is very easy indeed to convert to Islam, but once the requisite phrases have been uttered, exit is not permitted. While Muslims are free to proselytize in most of the world, most Islamic countries refuse to allow Christian evangelists, or evangelists for any other faith for that matter, to operate freely. Severe criminal penalties exist in some states like Saudi Arabia, for inducing a Muslim to leave the faith.

There has never been an adequate translation of the Bible into classical Arabic. Such translations as exist are subject to ridicule by those trained in the poetry of the Quran, which is the standard used to define classical Arabic.

Nevertheless, there are Christian evangelists who wish to bring their religion and the teachings of Christ to Muslims. In 1999, two pseudonymous Arab Christian authors produced a book, The True Furqan (Furqan is another word for Quran), written in classical Arabic, intended as a tool to evangelize Arabs in particular, and Muslims in general. It is written in the style of the Quran, as a series of poetic verses, and contains Arabic verses and an English translation, side by side. But it brings the message of ChristianityÂ’s Good News.

To appease its resident Islamists, India banned The True Furqan in September.

Custom Non-Tariff Notification

No: 78/ NT (07-Sep-05) Govt prohibits import of book titled ‘The True Furqan’, subtitled ‘The 21st Century Quran’ published by USA-based publisher

The Central Government, for the maintenance of security of India, absolutely prohibits import of the book entitled “The True Furqan”, subtitled “The 21st Century Quran” published in the United States of America by Omega, 2000 and Wine Press, including any extract there from, any reprint or translation thereof or any document reproducing any matter contained therein.

Interestingly enough, this decree could be seen as banning the Bible, as much of The True Furqan is quotes from Scripture.

I encourage readers to look at the text of the book at the link above, and to pass it on to Muslim friends.

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1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.
3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Glory in the Highest

8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!

15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

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In the 5199th year of the creation of the world, from the time when in the beginning God created heaven and earth;
from the flood, the 2957th year;
from the birth of Abraham, the 2015th year;
from Moses and the going-out of the people of Israel from Egypt, the 1510th;
from the anointing of David as king, the 1032nd year;
in the 65th week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
in the 194th Olympiad;
from the founding of the city of Rome, the 752nd year;
in the 42nd year of the rule of Octavian Augustus,
when the whole world was at peace,
in the sixth age of the world:
Jesus Christ, the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by His most merciful coming,
having been conceived by the Holy Ghost,
and nine months having passed since His conception
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary,
having become man.

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

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Confederate Yankee discovered this Christmas outrage while seeking an image for a Christmas post using Google. Guess what came up when he entered the words "baby jesus".

Notice that the top search result is for a sex toy that mocks Jesus.

Other results on this search results page have more link traffic. A quick review of page's code shows no HTML meta information that should give it a favorable ranking. The page itself has a raw relevance ranking (search word divided by total words) of less than five percent. The only conclusion I can draw is that this page position ranking was done manually by a Google staffer.

And who says there is not a war on Christmas and Christianity?

MORE AT: Wizbang, Verum Serum

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After all, we canÂ’t allow a city festival to be hijacked by Christians mentioning Jesus Christ, can we? Folks might be offended.

At the city's annual holiday celebration, a rabbi lighted a menorah. A dance troupe performed a traditional prayer to the gods.

But six young girls were told they they couldn't perform because they were wearing shirts emblazoned with a silver cross and the words "Jesus Christ" on the front.

The "Jesus Christ Dancers," a group of 8-to-12-year-olds who describe themselves as Christian hip-hop dancers, were scheduled to make their citywide debut at the Dec. 3 holiday festival.

Moments before taking the stage, employees from the city's Parks and Recreation Department barred them from performing, saying they did not want to convey a religious message in the show.

According to the group's dance instructor, Lita Ramirez, the dancers was asked to turn their shirts inside out. The group was also asked if its music had a religious message.

"I told him our music says 'You are my God' and 'We will worship You,'" Ramirez said. "I also said I think it mentions Jesus."

So letÂ’s make it clear what the rules are in this country where most folks are (at least nominally) Christian.

Rabbis lighting menorahs – OK.

Prayer to pagan gods – Acceptable.

Hip-hop music with Christian themes and shirts that mention Jesus – Absolutely not.

After all, it isnÂ’t like Christmas is His birthday.

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What else are observers to make of the statements of Jim Wallis and his supporters, given the conflicting statements of organizers of yesterdays protest rally in Washington.

Jim Wallis makes it clear that the rally is based upon their religious faith, to protest a budget that their understanding of Christianity views as immoral.

The group's founder, Jim Wallis, called the event "a revival," adding that, "We're here because of Jesus, because of our faith." The group complained that the federal budget is "immoral" because it cuts spending on social programs.

Not, of course, that they are willing to come out and honestly admit that they want the budget to reflect their religious values.

But when asked by Cybercast News Service whether he was urging the government to promote Judeo-Christian values, Rivera said he was not. "What we're saying is that ... whether you have a religious tradition like many people here do, or just come out of a human tradition, we don't think the country should balance its budget on the back of its most vulnerable citizens."

Rivera said his group believes that "budgets reflect your priorities and church people from all over the country ... are here with their leadership asking that this budget not be passed."

He said tax cuts should be rolled back and that spending billions of dollars on the war in Iraq "while cutting food stamps ... doesn't really reflect moral priorities."

So when it comes down to it, they are not willing to admit that what they want is THEIR interpretation of Scripture codified in the budget. After all, that would be (in the current parlance of the Left) the establishment of a theocracy – so they have to deny their religious motivations.

I think that is called “bearing false witness”.

UPDATE: Bob Ellis of Dakota Voice has a great piece on this issue.

UPDATE 2: I hadnÂ’t seen this article about the different issues taken up by the religious right and religious left. It makes me question the Christian witness of Jim Wallis even more.

"It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important," said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. "But whether or not a baby is killed in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, that is less important than help for the poor? We would respectfully disagree with that."

Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian journal Sojourners and an organizer of today's protest, was not buying it. Such conservative religious leaders "have agreed to support cutting food stamps for poor people if Republicans support them on judicial nominees," he said. "They are trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical."

What Wallis misses, though, is that it is the very conservative Christians he is bashing who do a great deal of the “leg-work” to help the poor through private programs. One can legitimately question the balance of public vs. private involvement in helping the poor without being unbiblical. Indeed, I would argue that it is more biblical to support charitable private action on behalf of the poor than it is to call for mandated involuntary giving through increased taxes, spending, and transfer payments. Indeed, Wallis and his ilk are calling upon government to replace and assume the role of the Church – on the very theocratic model of Old Testament Israel that the Left in this country claims to reject.

Indeed, Wallis has to come up with his own personal translation of Isaiah 10:1-2 in order to even find a biblical leg to stand on.

"Woe to you legislators of infamous laws . . . who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan."

The verses are more commonly translated differently – and the closest thing I could find is the following from the New American Bible.

1 Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees,

2 Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, Making widows their plunder, and orphans their prey!

But even if you accept the Wallis translation, you would first have to determine that the statutes are “unjust” (does one have, as a matter of justice, a right to the fruits of the labor of others?). Furthermore, you would have to get around the niggling little detail that the second verse is, based upon the original source, dealing with issues of failing to protect the rights of the poor, widows, and orphans in courts, not in terms of legislation. Wallis, I daresay, is clearly reading in to the text what he wants there rather than reading out of it what is there – a clear failure for one who wants to be taken seriously as a judge of what views are “unbiblical”.

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CanÂ’t the dispute between rival groups be resolved so that this Christian treasure can be restored and safe-guarded for the ages?

If pilgrims worshipping in the Church of the Nativity look up at the roof, they will see a battlefield threatening the future of one of Christendom's most holy sites.

Squabbling over crucial roof repairs between the three Christian communities who share custodianship of Jesus's birthplace is endangering the 1,500-year-old basilica.

Large holes in the 500-year-old lead roof have let rainwater flood inside for years. It streams down the walls and threatens to wash away Crusader-era murals and destroy Byzantine mosaics.

A botched repair by the Greeks, in which the roof was given a waterproof lining, has created new problems as condensation now eats into the plaster and rots wooden beams.

The most authoritative survey for decades found that the wood was so badly damaged that a large truss was only being prevented from crashing to the floor by friction.

But while the three communities accept that repairs are needed, mutual suspicion means they cannot agree on how to carry them out.

The impasse means that each year the winter rains destroy more of the church's once magnificent interior.

The situation is a true scandal, in my opinion, an abrogation of the notion of Christian brotherhood, with monks and priests of different Christian sects playing politics over one of Christianity’s holiest spots – the church marking the traditional spot of the birth of Jesus Christ. If anything, the words of one priest and scholar understate the disgracefulness of the neglect of the church.

Fr Michele Piccirillo, a Catholic priest and archaeological expert, said: "The Church of The Nativity should be a symbol of what we are as Christians, not a symbol of disunity and disagreement. The condition of the roof is unbelievably bad and it must be settled not just for the benefit of the church but for all Christianity.'' The church is venerated as one of the oldest continuously used Christian places of worship, surviving earthquakes, floods and military occupations.

Not only does the roof need to be repaired for the benefit of all Christians, it needs to be repaired for the benefit of all humanity. Like the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, the Church of the Nativity belongs to the heritage of all people, regardless of their religion. That those charged with caring for it have allowed the structure to fall into monumental disrepair boggles the mind.

From this blogger’s standpoint, the best thing that could happen would be for the care of the structure to be removed from the control of all the groups involved – and to have the Israeli government effect the repair of this cultural treasure which holds an important spot in its tourism industry.

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I guess they thought that the family that slays together stays together.

A FATHER who ordered his two teenage sons to murder a British university student in a so-called "honour killing" because the victim had made the man's daughter pregnant, was jailed for 20 years today.

The sons of Chomir Ali, aged 15 and 19 at the time of the murder were sentenced to minimum terms of 14 and 16 years respectively for killing Oxford Brookes University student Arash Ghorbani-Zarin.

The 19-year old Ghorbani-Zarin was found dead with 46 stab wounds in the front seat a car in Rosehill, Oxford on November 20, 2004.

All four were Muslims. Ali and his sons were of Bangladeshi origin while Ghorbani-Zarin was a British Iranian.

Judge Mr Justice Gross, sitting at London's High Court, sentenced Ali, 44, and his sons to life prison terms for what he described as a "cold blooded intentional killing".

Setting the individual minimum tariffs for all three, he said: "Far from vindicating your family's honour, you have permanently dishonoured your family with the stain of murder."

I can understand wanting to kill the guy who knocked up your daughter, but carrying it out is a bit extreme. Claiming that it restored your family honor is even worse.

And then, it appears, the daughter was coerced into aborting the pregnancy. No doubt the threat of her death was used by her father to get her to kill the unwanted grandchild.

I guess that is just Islamist family values at work.

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And yet we continue to welcome such folks in the Western world.

THE eldest of four Pakistani gang rapist brothers has admitted lying at trial and apologised to his victims but said he thought he had a right to rape the "promiscuous" teenage girls.

MSK, 27, told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday that this was because the girls did not wear headscarves, were drinking alcohol and were unaccompanied when they went to his Ashfield home. MSK also blamed his intoxication, "cultural beliefs" and an undiagnosed mental disorder.

Lock him away for as long as you can -- he is clearly too dangerous to ever return to society.

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The secularist war against Christmas continues.

Our first report is from the Tennessee front.

According to a statement from ADF, the controversy arose when Brandi Chambless, a member of the music ministry at Broadmoor Memphis Church, submitted an announcement for display on the library's community shelves regarding the church's upcoming Christmas show. Library officials accepted the announcement but told Chambless that she would have to remove the "inappropriate" figures of the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, and the wise men from an accompanying nativity scene and limit it to farm animals alone.

"Now we've got a bunch of barnyard animals in our display. We've got a sheep, a goat, a cow," Chambless said last night on the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor." "We just think it's the most ridiculous thing."

Secularist forces scored two victories against pro-Christmas forces in Washington State public schools.

Two suburban school districts have had to do some backtracking over holiday religious issues, one for lunch menus with the words "Merry Christmas" and the other for a "giving tree."

In Federal Way, between Seattle and Tacoma, December lunch menus for all 23 elementary schools were recalled and reprinted with the words "Happy Holidays" at a cost of $494 after a new nutrition services employee mistakenly prepared them with the greeting "Merry Christmas," spokeswoman Diane Turner said.

The 11,500 misworded calendar-style menus were never distributed and were recycled, Turner added.

Using "Merry Christmas" on the menus violated school system policies because "it has a religious connotation for some people," Turner said.

"Our objective is to provide information to the diversity of the people that we have in our district," she said. "We try to respect each individuals point of view."

In tony Medina, east of Lake Washington, a Christmas-style tree bearing mittens labeled with gift ideas was up for about a week at Medina Elementary School before it was removed, office manager Chris Metzger said.

The idea was for pupils to take a mitten, get the listed gift, wrap it and bring it to school to be given to someone at Lake Hills Elementary School in a less well-off section of neighboring Bellevue.

Some parents had put up the spiral, lighted tree with a star at the top, but it was removed Monday after another parent complained that it had religious connotations, Metzger said. The mittens were transferred to a counter in the office so the gift program could continue.

"We covered the star and called it a giving tree. We hoped it would suffice, but it didn't," Metzger said. "Now we just have a giving counter."

Young children were saved from the the mention of the C-word on a school menu and the presence of a seasonal symbol that has been rled secular by the courts.

I'm curious -- how much more of this insanity will the 90% of Americans who mark Christmas take before fighting back against the forces of anti-Christian secularism?

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Am I the only one who thinks this sounds more like a case of fraud than a case of assault?

A college professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he derided Christian conservatives said he was beaten by two men along a rural road early Monday.

University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said the men referred to the class when they beat him on the head, shoulders and back with their fists, and possibly a metal object, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

"I didn't know them," Mirecki said of his assailants, "but I'm sure they knew me."
Messages left by the Associated Press on Mirecki's cell phone were not immediately returned.

Sheriff's Lt. Kari Wempe said Mirecki reported the attack just before 7 a.m.

The professor said he confronted the men after they were tailgating his vehicle along a road south of Lawrence. "I'm mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots," he said.

Now tell me, how many folks stop their vehicles and get out in order to confront a tailgater? Very few – and none with even a modicum of common sense. You make way for them to pass – and call the police if their behavior is particularly outrageous.

No, this sounds like an ersatz “hate crime” designed to discredit Mirecki’s critics and bolster his own standing at a time when he is under fire from all sides.

UPDATE: Looks like I may not be alone inhaving some doubts about this case. Michelle Malkin has some documents related to the case and a few observations. Also commenting are Brainster's Blog, Sean Gleeson, The Moderate Voice, Classical Values, Telic Thoughts, Doc Rampage, Total Drek, Tony's Kansas City

UPDATE -- 12/10/05: More at Hennessy's View (four, in fact) and Michelle Malkin.

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IÂ’d love to find out more about this case, which seems to recognize that the religious freedom guaranteed in the Constitution is at least as important as statutory non-discrimination provisions protecting homosexuals.

A United States appeal court has backed two fertility doctors who refused to treat a lesbian patient because it would have violated their religious beliefs.

The woman, Guadalupe Benitez, sued the doctors after she was turned down for artificial insemination in 1999. She claimed that on her first visit to the women's clinic in a suburb of San Diego, California, one of the doctors, Christine Brody, told her that she would not perform the procedure on a lesbian because of her faith.

She was initially told that another doctor at the clinic would perform the procedure but after nearly a year of being put off, Ms Benitez alleges that Dr Brody told her nobody in the four-person clinic would treat her. The other doctor named in the suit is Douglas Fenton.

The appeal court ruling allows the doctors to use religious liberty as a defence in the anti-discrimination lawsuit. The decision overturned a lower court ruling.
The case has been closely watched across the US - testing as it does the overlapping rights of the increasingly political religious community and the gay community. The California Medical Association and the Christian Medical and Dental Association joined in the doctors' defence.

Now I do have some qualms here.

First, I do not like the way in which the Ms. Benitez was seemingly strung along. The practice should have been up-front about their position on the issue.

Second, I assume that the decision limits the right to refuse treatment to only elective procedures or non-critical treatments. There is a moral duty to protect life that would certainly override any religiously based preference to avoid treating individuals whose lifestyle contradicts one's beliefs.

But the broader point – that professionals do not surrender their rights under the First Amendment by accepting a license to engage in their profession – is an important one.

HERE'S MORE: From How Appealing.

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Thomas E. Dennely hits a homerun with his piece in todayÂ’s Newsday about the ACLU and Christmas.

As the holiday season gets into full swing - and as sure as the sun rises in the east - the American Civil Liberties Union will soon appear on the scene to remind Americans that there should be no display of religious symbols on public property, for to do so is a violation of the separation of church and state.

Presumably believing that the ACLU is the self-appointed guardian of religious freedom within our nation, it sees no inconsistency when the same ACLU legally supports the members of the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan in using public property to spew their venom. This graphic inconsistency should blow one's mind. It is thoroughly repugnant when the ACLU legally supports such hate mongers in their use of public property, while legally opposing both Christians and Jews doing likewise with Christmas and the Festival of Lights, for example.

Dennely then goes on to point to the many ways in which the very Founders that the ACLU claims would approve their actions took a strikingly different position on the issue of “separation of church and state”. I strongly encourage you to read his column.

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Even the passing on of the Christian faith to children is an offense to the Islamists.

Approximately 30 Christian children fled in panic after a mob of Islamic militants raided and vandalized their Sunday school class, which was being held in a private home last weekend in Curug, Indonesia, according to a Christian group called Voice of the Martyrs (VOM).

The violence came less than a month after three teenaged Christian schoolgirls were attacked and beheaded as they walked through a cocoa plantation on their way to school. One girl's severed head was reportedly placed in front of a church, eight miles from where the bodies were found, in what locals viewed as a stark warning to Christians.

VOM reported that in the most recent incident, the mob "terrorized" the children at the Curug Sunday school class and destroyed several desks and chairs, guitars, a keyboard, organ and fan in the classroom. Voice of the Martyrs is a Christian organization that documents persecution of believers.

The children began to flee in panic, according to VOM, after which the mob then allegedly evicted the remaining adults and children from the home "by force" and "sealed" it by plastering posters denouncing the school over the doors of the building.

When will the government of Indonesia act to protect the human rights of its Christian citizens?

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